mppt charge controller - ZLPOWER ??

[seadss]

conection cable RS232 - RJ11

1.jpg3.jpg

Tony, thanks for the reply.all what you said sounded good,I'm not that smart into electronics as you. So your saying that we cant JUST hook up that ,,,looks like phone jack to a lab top or desk top, that we will need another part?
I also didn't have time to hook up like 2 -65 watt x 21 volts to see if it charges at 12 volts and more amp's, then the single panel.
Im going to emil them tonight, or hook up skyp and talk to the sale people / girl and ask if I could be put in touch with a person in the other deptment were they figure all this stuff out and give them this link so they could read what you/we are tring to find out.
TKS
John

Dear Sirs,
I would ask you, or someone for a piece of information. I bought a used SL-40A 40A MPPT Solar Charge Controller with E-XXA series LCD display. But I did not get cable to connect the controller and LCD display. I opened LCD display and saw that the RS232 4 wires connected
Pin 6 - Black
Pin 7 - red
pin 8 - red
Pin 9 - yellow
But how do I connect to the RJ11 connector.
Could someone help me with this problem?
BR Sead

[Yex]

Any battery bank can have several controllers connected to it, and be fed from different sources.

I think this is what they mean by parallel controllers...

Yex

[Yex]

Very good controller....

Hello all,

Very good controller.... but !

I'm a solar product re sellers in Canada. I sell Canadian Solar Panel (made in Ontario, Canada) and I was selling ZlPower's solar charge controller & inverter/charger.

Last June (2013) I started importing the Solar Charge Controller SL series. Contrary to the various comment I read on this thread, I assure you that it is a real MPTT solar charge controller.

That is not the problems. The real problem is the company itself and the service they offer after sale.

- Their Quality control is very bad. The last batch I purchase (30 controller), I received 3 defective unit) that is 10% !

- They do not honour their warranty. Each time I get a call from a customer that his/her controller does not work, I replaced it with a new one but the company refused to replace or repair it the damage unit.

- They refuse to be responsible for any error they commit. I purchased LCD display with all my controllers. Half the connecting wire I received are defective. We're talking 50 cent telephone wire. Each time it resulted in endless discussion where they denied all responsibility and I ended up having to purchase the wire elsewhere.

- Last but not least, they advertise and sell products they don't have ! For instance, they claimed they can produce North American Split-Phase standard inverter/charger 120V/240V. So I bought one 4000W-24V Split-Pahse unit which cost me nearly $800 with shipping. When I received it, I realized it was a European model 230V 50 Hz modified with an extra 110 V line out. They actually call this a Dual phase but it's not a N.A. Split-Phase Stadanrd and can't be use on our system. Needless to say, they never wanted to replace it nor refund me and never admitted selling me the wrong produce. They still claim it is a Split Phase.

Just that you all know, I'm an Electrical Engineer. I think I know what is 120V/240V, 60 Hz Split-Phase vs European mono-phase 230V, 50Hz...

So my advice is: don't lose your money, these are, by far, the worse people I ever did business with

Right now I'm actively looking for reliable Canadian or USA manufacturer. I'm tired of getting screw by by dishonest Chinese thief...

Yex

[conntaxman]

mppt charge controllers-zlpower

This forum has been very informative to me since im just getting into solar power.

I just want to share my experience with this mppt controller, it came in an unlabaled box.

My system at first setup was 2 x120w parallel conection mono panel, a china 600w inverter and locally produced 100ah flooded battery that is connected with the zlpower sl-40a.

Max charging amp from 2 parallel 120w panel was 11amp. So no big increase even with mppt

When i connected the panels as series, i got 14amp. So i do think this mppt really works.

.
Shibby I also have a SL-40 from ZLPOWER and mine also DOSE work as a MPPT. volt before in the 30 tees 8amp out volt in the 12 and amps about11 or like that.Forgot the real numbers.
I know another that has one and he also showes it is a REAL MPPT controller.
Can't beat it for the Price , Saving Hundreds.
Next is a 2000watt pure sine inverter with built in charge controller,and transfer switch.That will be saving me over $1500.00 now thats some chump change.Or a lot of coffee money.
John
oh, Diy solar panels now on 3 years,doing well. Money saved? dont even ask. toooooooooooo much

[inetdog]

This is my amp readout 6.18 amp from two series connected 120w panel, and 14.26amp output sent to the battery with a n inverter load

For what it is worth, you can design a DC-to-DC converter to get more amps out than amps in, keeping the wattage roughly constant and allowing for flexible input voltage, in two distinctly different ways:

1. You can program the microprocessor to scan a range of I versus V operating points to determine which one delivers the most power to the output, and keep scanning at intervals during normal operation. This is what is generally considered to be MPPT, and although it could be done with analog circuitry, the practical way to implement it is with a digital processor as the control element.

2. You could program the control element to simply sense the Voc of the connected array and then set the operating voltage point at a fixed fraction of that value. This would be a waste of the potential flexibility of the electronics and would also not get anywhere near the optimal result for a partially shaded string, but it would make use of more potential panel power than a straight PWM implementation. I am not sure why anybody would do this, unless they are not competent to design a real MPPT algorithm, but it would produce a CC that behaved on first examination like a true MPPT controller. It would still contain a DC-to-DC converter as well as the multi-phase output controls.

[Shibby75]

This is my amp readout 6.18 amp from two series connected 120w panel, and 14.26amp output sent to the battery with a n inverter load

[Shibby75]

This forum has been very informative to me since im just getting into solar power.

I just want to share my experience with this mppt controller, it came in an unlabaled box.

My system at first setup was 2 x120w parallel conection mono panel, a china 600w inverter and locally produced 100ah flooded battery that is connected with the zlpower sl-40a.

Max charging amp from 2 parallel 120w panel was 11amp. So no big increase even with mppt

When i connected the panels as series, i got 14amp. So i do think this mppt really works.

[conntaxman]

solar panel connection

I thought you wanted max amps? then parallel
max voltage ...then series.

I think you want max voltage.

-------------------------
Guess i was tring to get both. From four panels now im only drawing 8 amps at about 25 volts.

[pmaru77]

ok. so I'll wire the in series up to the voltage of the grid tie inverter.
tks
John

I thought you wanted max amps? then parallel
max voltage ...then series.

I think you want max voltage.

[conntaxman]

Solar cell panel

ok. so I'll wire the in series up to the voltage of the grid tie inverter.
tks
John

[Sunking]

Did I screw up again?

Yeah you did.

Series Circuits Vt = V1 + V2 + V3... I1 = I2 = I3...
Parallel Circuits It = I1 + I2 + I3... V1 = V2 = V3....

So with the example given of 4 panels with 18 volts @ 3.5 amps:

Series = 18 + 18 + 18 + 18 = 4 x 18 = 72 volts @ 3.5 amps = 252 watts
Parallel = 3.5 + 3.5 + 3.5 + 3.5 = 4 x 3.5 = 14 amps @ 18 volts = 252 watts

[pmaru77]

Incorrect answer. Wire them in series and the voltage adds. Wire them in parallel current adds.

Did I screw up again? series parallel series parallel.......I better stick to +'s and -'s. I always get it backwards except when actually wiring.

[Sunking]

So wire them in series to keep the voltage down....if this is what you really want to do.

Incorrect answer. Wire them in series and the voltage adds. Wire them in parallel current adds.

[Sunking]

If you really have a MPPT controller you want the amperage to be as low as possible, and the voltage as high as possible. You would want to wire all 4 panels in series which would give you 72 volts @ 3.5 amps.

If you have a PWM controller then you only have one lousy option to wire all 4 of them in parallel assuming you are operating a 12 volt battery which gives you 18 volts @ 14 amps.

[pmaru77]

watts=voltage x ampers

watts is fixed

so the lower the voltage, then the higher the amperage. So wire them in series to keep the voltage down....if this is what you really want to do.

EDIT: parallel...not series. + to + to + to + - to - to - to -